In the Wrong Place at the Wrong Time
by Cescalia
Summary: In haste to get to school on time after an akuma attack, Marinette stumbles upon Chat Noir right before he detransforms. Things don't exactly settle down quietly.


Marinette was running back towards the school after the inconveniently timed akuma attack, cursing Hawk Moth and his ability to ruin her daily life every single moment. She had used her lucky charm and had to hurry to hide in the unfamiliar alleyway, her transformation dropped, she had only bare minutes left to arrive at school on time.

Why did this akuma's target have to be someone from the other side of the city, when today was the day she couldn't spare any seconds as she had a biology presentation to show in front of class, which accounted as 20% of her final grade. She didn't want to miss it as she had been absent too many times to count due to her tardiness. And this time, it wasn't even her fault.

Pushing the doors wide open she tried to remember which class they were supposed to be in, the schedule had changed the same week. For having Ladybug's luck, she was pretty unlucky.

Taking off towards the classroom, she saw a flicker of black from the corner of her eye and suddenly, she walked right against someone's chest, stumbling few steps until she felt gloved hands grasping her forearms with care. Marinette looked up and had to hold back a gasp as she had smacked into Chat Noir.

 _'What the hell is he doing here? In this school? Right after an akuma attack? Does he go here?'_ Millions of questions were buzzing in Marinette's head.

"Chat Noir!" she breathed and had to stop herself from gawking her eyes out of the sockets.

Chat seemed startled and anxious, frozen in fear. The loud beeping echoed in the air as the bright green light, starting from his boots began to wash over him. Marinette's heart stopped. He was about to detransform and she couldn't turn away and not even close her eyes.

" _Shit_ ," Chat muttered and kept staring at her. When the light faded, she was met with an extremely familiar face.

Adrien removed his hands from her arms, as if they had burned him and backed to the wall in horror as his identity, that he wasn't supposed to reveal, was exposed to the civilian, to his friend, to Marinette.

Marinette kept looking at him with an unreadable expression, but she clearly seemed to be in shock, it's not every day that you find out that one of your classmates is actually a superhero.

He was extremely glad that they were out of sight, because he wasn't sure if he could handle anymore attention, it was already difficult to deal with the situation in which he had accidentally put himself into. This wasn't supposed to happen.

"A-Adrien? You-You're _Chat Noir_?" she stuttered in a quiet tone, which he was grateful for, at least she knew to keep it as a secret.

Somehow Adrien found it in himself to grin at the astonished face of his friend.

"Hello, _princess_." He regretted saying it the instant he saw how Marinette blushed scarlet and stepped farther away from him. Right, she didn't like him. It wouldn't help his case, if he kept using the flirty nickname he had given her.

Marinette gulped visibly, trying to keep herself calm as she let a shaky breath escape her mouth.

"Give me a moment, please," with those words Marinette abruptly turned around, leaving behind a confused Adrien, and threw open the first door she found, slipping in, slamming the door closed with too much force. No one ever used that particular classroom as its benches tended to break too often for students to work in the room undisturbed, ironically, it was soundproof.

Once she was gone, Adrien slid down the wall and took his head between his hands, shaking his groomed hair in exasperation. Now he had done it, he had completely broken her. She would despise him even more now.

Usually, Marinette found an excuse to avoid his company, she treated him differently from everyone else, constantly stammering. She was probably intimidated by him or still hadn't forgiven him for the gum incident. She hadn't been that fond of him as Chat either. Why did his bad luck always interfere with his relationships?

He raised his head in panic, when he heard loud muted yells, accompanied by violent thumps against the wood from the direction of the classroom Marinette had gone in.

"Why? Why him? Stupid fucking cat! It had to be him! Does everyone in the world have it out for me? Of course I would be the one to turn down every affection that mangy alley cat showed me just to discover that he was the same guy I already was in love with! Fucking fate can bite me in theass! Fuck _him_! Fuck _me_!" the yelling was faint, muffled by the walls, but Adrien could hear every word and curse Marinette flung at him in irritation.

 _'Affections? In love with?'_ Adrien was bewildered, Marinette acted as if she wasn't herself, swearing and speaking nonsense out of her lips. He felt a headache kicking in as he didn't understand anything, his world was turning upside down.

He didn't think he had showed her any obvious affections. Yeah, he tried to be more open towards her and friendly, but it was not unlike how he talked with others. Maybe he was a bit more attentive with her and he did flirt with her as Chat, kind of. He didn't mean to, but he had just wanted to impress her. And what was that part, where she claimed to be in love with him?

Adrien's heart skipped a beat and he felt his cheeks colour pink as a revelation dawned over him. Had that been why Marinette was so shy around him? He wanted to pull out his hair, how completely oblivious he had been.

But that didn't explain why she thought she had turned down his affections, he was certain he had not made any apparent romantic advances at her, he was completely enamoured with Ladybug and she was the only one he- _wait_...

Adrien . exe not responding.

Marinette stopped beating the door almost out of its hinges and slowed her breathing down. She was freaking out, but that didn't imply that she could damage school property. She still had to do the presentation. Oh, _fuck it_. She couldn't do anything at the moment, except go to her bedroom and scream in her pillow for hours.

He had been _right there_. The whole time.

His partner, who she trusted with her life, who always had her back, but loved to annoy her with silly puns and light-hearted flirting, was the same boy who she was madly crushing on and couldn't get the right words out in the correct order, in his presence. She closed her eyes and involuntarily she felt a small smile play around her lips. She opened her eyes again, only to realise, that it was too bright in the room. As if the lights had been turned on.

 _'But why are the lights on, this is just a waste of electricity, when no one is using the room, unless...'_ her thoughts trailed off and Marinette slowly faced the classroom to discover that it was full of random students, who were all staring at her as if she had just escaped a madhouse. Some of them were snickering behind their hands, but most of them just had their mouths wide open like she had grown two heads.

Marinette turned red-faced towards the board that stood against the wall next to a gaping teacher, her chalk broken between her fingers.

Making sense of the formulas scribbled on the board, Marinette tried to crawl herself out of the hole, she had unconsciously dug herself in.

"Oh, physics, nice, uhm- wow, that's cool. I love Archimedes!"

If only there was a buoyant force that could keep her afloat when her legs wobbled and threatened to give in under her. Without an extra comment, she stormed out of the classroom, closing the door behind her in inhuman speed.

With every intention to skip the remaining classes, which she had almost fully blew over anyway, Marinette was set to ditch everything to forget about the mortifying day and the emotions that swirled around her head, making her dizzy.

 _'Oh, right,'_ she thought as she was met with a pair of bright vivid green eyes looking straight at her. He was too close. Marinette bit her lips and desperately looked for the way out, shifting her eyes from one side to other. He had heard everything. _Fuck._

Marinette had to lean on the wall to support herself and to prevent herself from fainting in front of her crush. She was so embarrassed. She would never have a chance with him now. He's going to loathe her.

Her amusing process of thought was cut off by the soft lips that lightly pressed against hers, gentle hands tilting her head upwards. Hesitantly, she kissed him back, grabbing his neck and pulling him closer. She melted. But it was okay, as long as he would be there to catch her.


End file.
